dave mcbride

The postseason: believe in it. It is, and should be, determinative in borderline cases. It's what the game is all about.

Postseason counts -- and it should count.

The announcers, if I recall correctly, said that there were gusts of up to 30 mph during the game. That said, I take your point and thanks for the clarification. Regardless, it was windy. The Broncos kicker said it was the hardest environment he has kicked in. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/11/24/brandon-mcmanus-wind-kicking-broncos-bills/ Re getting hit, he didn't get hit AFTER he threw it; he was being hit pretty much WHILE he threw it: .

The odd thing about this is that is two best deep passes (in terms of accuracy) later in the season were both to John Brown in the Denver and NE games. In the Denver game, the ball was right on the money, but the important context is that he was throwing directly into a ~30 mph wind. In the NE game, he got hit hard as he threw it. In almost every instance, such passes end up short. Neither did in this case.

Between 2014 and 2019, the Patriots played in 12 playoff games. Brady threw 50+ passes 4 times, 40+ passes 9 times, and never below 35 passes. Over that timespan, Patriots won 3 SBs, played in 4 SBs, and played in 5 AFC championship games. They have been the gold standard postseason team for a very long time.

'Good on Dolphins coach Brian Flores, letting a couple guys go for promotions. Jerry Schuplinski gets to be the quarterbacks coach with the Giants (removing “assistant” from his title) and join a guy, in Joe Judge, whom he was to join in Indianapolis as part of Josh McDaniels’ staff two years ago. And DC Pat Graham gets to add “assistant head coach” to his title in New York. Allowing guys to seek career advancement, and make personal decisions, has a way of giving a head coach a reputation of being the kind of guy people would want to work for. That, in the long run, will be of benefit to Flores.' (also @Hapless Bills Fan) https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/01/20/nfl-playoffs-super-bowl-liv-49ers-chiefs-patrick-mahomes-kyle-shanahan-mmqb

Also, the backup RB who did play vs TN totally flubbed a hot route that saw Mahomes' pass hitting in the back of his jersey. Mahomes was clearly irked by that.

There were two coaches who were all in on Mahomes: Andy Reid and Sean Payton. That tells you all you need to know. (KC traded with us to get ahead of NO, who drafted next).

Honestly, with regard to those teams’ fast rebuilds, it is literally ALL about their QBs. They are all basically .500 to sub-.500 teams without those QBs (ie, SF last year). Allen isn’t nearly as good right now as Wilson, Garrapolo (who is incredibly accurate and a great processor), Wentz, or Goff (who, lest we forget, was great in 2017 and 2018). If the Bills get to the next level, it will be because Allen begins to excel and improve upon the major holes in his game. After watching Mahomes and Wilson continually hit on deep throws, I believe that Josh A will never become a true franchise QB if he continues to be notably poor deep thrower. It is up to him.

Yes, Hyde. Duh! My bad.

Poyer led the NFL in td returns on attempted onside kicks!

To be clear, I am a very hardcore Yankees fan. The Yankees overperformed in the postseason a bit that year relative to their regular season performance because Tanaka -- a truly league average pitcher the last three seasons (and slightly below league average in 2017) -- just dominates in the postseason (1.76 ERA and 0.78 WHIP over 46 postseason innings).

I thought the Dodgers were the best team in 2017.

The best comparison I think is Bountygate (not Spygate), and the punishments seem pretty similar. Bountygate was a lot worse. The Yankees were definitely not the best team in baseball in 2017.

Yeah, they had a bunch of games where they gave up loads of points, but they gave up 13 or fewer points in 7 of their games.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but you should read more of the thread to get better context. This is kinda fake news. It's not even accurate given the larger context of his postgame comments.

Not really true. The Rams were at least decent on D - 13th in yards allowed, 9th in turnovers forced, 9th in defensive DVOA, 10th in yards per drive, and 11th in points per drive. They were 17th in points allowed partly because their offense turned the ball over a lot - the offense was 22nd in avoiding turnovers. The collective team defensive passer rating was 86.8, which is quite solid.

See my post at the bottom of page one of this thread — the SI story about him firing up the kickoff returner when they were down 24-0. The premise behind this entire thread is basically false regardless of his interactions with Kelce.

I don't actually disagree with you all that much, but there are shades of grey here. The reason why Watkins is so tantalizing for fans is because when he's on, he's as talented as any receiver you'll see in the NFL. He's THAT talented (you could even see it yesterday). But yeah, the production has never matched the talent. He's still pretty young, so who knows. It'll be interesting to see if KC keeps him next season - he's entering year 3 of a 3-year contract.

See my post at the bottom of page one. The SI story undercuts this narrative.

He had 90 yards from scrimmage yesterday and plays for a team that regularly distributes the ball to seven guys. Judging KC stats is hard to do because of how widely Mahomes distributes the ball.

Some more context that might shift the (false) narrative going on in this thread in a more positive direction re Watkins: https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/01/13/nfl-playoffs-divisional-round-49ers-titans-chiefs-packers-head-coaching-carousel-mmqb. " As the Texans were burying the Chiefs under 24 points at the suddenly-silent Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City receiver Sammy Watkins sought out rookie Mecole Hardman with a pointed message. You’re gonna do something to spark us. And spark them, he did. A Houston field goal had just made it 24–0 with just under 11 minutes left in the first half when Hardman took the kickoff and found a seam right up Main Street. The second-round pick hit it, then cut to a wide-open right of the field. Fifty-eight yards later, the game was changed for good. “He sparked us,” Watkins said a few hours after the fact. “We went down there and scored, and after that, we were on fire. Energy was contagious, everybody just feeding off each other. And it just kept on, trickled down into the defense getting stops and turning the ball over, and we’re scoring and we couldn’t be stopped.” --- [And the best part!!!] The Chiefs have had a tougher path than last year’s team did, and they’re not going to let a play like Dee Ford lining up offside at the least opportune time get them again, as it did last season against the Patriots. The players they’ve been hardened by its experience. We’ll know in a few days. “It’s stuck with us a lot,” Watkins said, referencing last year’s title game. “And I tell people, ‘Man, I don’t think God’s going to make another mistake.’ We took that one to the chin pretty hard. And now we’ve got the same opportunity coming. --- I love it! You know he played WR for the Bills if he starts blaming God for making mistakes in game outcomes!!

Decoy Sammy had 90 yards from scrimmage and only trailed Kelce among position players.

No, it's actually ok for baserunners to steal signs. You simply can't use technology to do it. It's clear cut, and the Astros and Red Sox are the only teams who have been caught.

He's not even right about the selectivity.